


Tell the Truth (But Tell it Slant)

by AceQueenKing



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:11:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6308230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kelly thinks she's willing to do anything for Cerberus.</p><p>But that was before they asked her to seduce Shepard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell the Truth (But Tell it Slant)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [worstcommander](https://archiveofourown.org/users/worstcommander/gifts).



1.

 

Cerberus awards all its operatives their missions according to their strengths.

Miranda has her surgeon's gloves and life-saving nanomachines.

Jacob has his biotic implants.

Wilson has his scalpel. Randall has his gun, Kai Lang his sword.

And Kelly, well, she has her research.

She makes a cup of tea as she settles down for work in front of her huge binder. Most prefer software, but Kelly has never liked the touch of digital ink; despite Miranda's sighs over how it's an inefficient model, Kelly has never been able to divorce herself from the love of pen and paper. Her meticulously constructed binder is full of her target's information: the gathered flotsam and jetsam of a short but accoladed life. Her hand caresses the faded name written across the spine: Shepard, Dolores.

She flips through the first few pages. She's pieced it together bit by bit. First, she'd gathered the most basic information: her birth date (April 11th), her service number (5923-AC-2826), her parent's marriage certificate (Hannah Shepard; Sebastian Delgado). Then it's on to the harder to find information - her grades in high school (straight A's in everything but history), her service records (exemplary), her psych evals (surprisingly sane). She has medical information from both sides of her family: she has her mother's eyes, her father's copper skin. She definitively, Kelly notes, flipping through a complicated family tree, has her grandfather Sebastian's nose.

In truth, Kelly knows more about the spiderweb that forms Shepard's family than she does about her own at this point. It's fascinating, she thinks, to know where Shepard came from. Kelly's seen Shepard's service record – more commendations and glowing evaluation reports than you can shake a stick at – and somehow, knowing that she is human, that her ancestors were ordinary and at times even plain people is comforting.

Shepard's family tree is a visual reminder that the woman she's been ordered to study is a human being, not a god.

Though sometimes, she wonders if the Illusive Man thinks of her so; how else to explain how obsessive he's been in his demand for Shepard’s psych profile?

It's nearly done now, she thinks; she opens her datapad, doing a final check of her profile. One of the pictures she's thrown in to illustrate Shepard's background catches her eye: two teenagers walking down a street in Chicago. The taller girl is, of course, Shepard; her muscles are clearly toned, even under the heavy coat. She’s smiling, her lips turned into a soft corner as her glossy black curls obscure her eyes. The girl leaning on her shoulder is no less stunning, a redhead with piercing green eyes who looks at her adoringly. Kelly runs a hand through her own red hair, and wonders – not for the first time – if Shepard was ever aware of just how spell-binding she is.

Her eyes gloss over the known information between the two – love notes on confiscated data pads, emails hacked from a server, an interview, conducted under the guise of writing a Shepard memorial. _There was no one like her,_ the then-Jenny Talbott-now-Jenny-Alvarez says, and Kelly can almost hear the awed tone floating off the page, even after all these years.

 

2.

 

She is watching a video of Shepard, her burning eyes staring intensely at the camera after her defeat of Saren. She's standing on a promenade on the Citadel, the Councilors standing behind her looking significantly more hesitant to be there as Shepard is. Her body language is clear: arms folded tight against her chest, her eyes weighed down by an ever-present heaviness.

She looks tired, exhausted really: her eyes look haunted, whether by fatigue or ghosts, Kelly cannot say.

Her omni-tool pings, and the image of Shepard fades, replaced by a message from Miranda.

_The Illusive Man will see you now._

She stands and swallows, closing down her omni-tool. Shepard's eyes stick with her in her mind’s eye.

She walks down the narrow hallway, then into the CQC. Miranda is standing there talking to the Illusive Man.

She takes a minute and watches, spellbound, as the Illusive Man takes a deep drag of his cigarette.

“Dismissed, Miranda,” he says. His accent is carefully neutral and she wonders if the man she sees – all quicksilver and smoke – is his true face.

“Ms. Chambers,” he says. He places his hands behind his head and smiles. Kelly tries to smile back through a thundering heartbeat. She's never been able to feel comfortable in his presence. She knows he wants the best for humanity – but sometimes she wonders about the price.

“Sir,” she says, delicately, folding her hands in front of her. She's only talked to him twice in her entire life, and has never quite worked out how to address him.  


“How goes your work?” The Illusive Man leans forward, a hand on his chin. His full attention is on her, and it's terrifying, but Kelly smiles and takes a deep breath.

“I've completed my psych eval of Shepard, Sir.”

“Beam it to me.” His tone is insistent, and Kelly wastes no time beaming over her results.

She expects the Illusive Man to tell her thank you and to return to he post, but he doesn't. Instead, to her horror, he flips through it, her stomach turning as he reads it in front of her. His cybernetic eyes glide as he reads off his datapad.

He pauses for a moment, his fingers dancing over his omni. He pulls up an image to display on a screen near him, and her heart twists at the image of Shepard and her teenage girlfriend.

“She's a beautiful woman, isn't she?” The Illusive Man asks, his tone unnaturally gentle. Kelly pauses carefully before answering, her lips pursed in thought.

Rarely does the Illusive Man engage in small talk.

“Yes, sir,” she says carefully, trying to follow the train of his thought.

He's quiet for a few moments, staring still at the picture of Shepard. “How much faith do you have in your evaluation, Ms. Chambers?”  
  
“Well, it's impossible to tell how she'd react to our... project, sir. That could change her personality considerably.” She grins, eager to demonstrate her knowledge. “But using this as a baseline, I can predict—”  
  
The Illusive Man cuts her off, waving his hand.

“Ms. Chambers, when Shepard awakens, could you use your research to predict her behavior?”  
  
“Yes.” She nods. “Provided I'm close enough to gather more data, of course.”  
  
“I'd like you become close with Ms. Shepard,” the Illusive Man says, his mouth tilted into a half-smirk that makes her shiver.

“Sir?”  
  
“Befriend her, Chambers. Become more to her than that if you can.” He leans in close to her. “We need you to gather as much information as we possibly can.”  
  
“More than that, sir?”

“We need her to remain loyal to us on this mission, Ms. Chambers.” The Illusive Man's cybernetic blue eyes rest on her, and she can’t help but feel he's reading her uncertainty like an open book. “I don't need to remind you of your importance in this endeavor, do I, Ms. Chambers?”  
  
“No, sir,” she says, swallowing. “You don't.”

 

3.

 

For all her research, Shepard still takes her by surprise.

Shepard—the real Shepard, the living, _breathing_ Shepard—doesn't behave exactly like her evaluation. Although Kelly had predicted that Shepard would not be pleased by Cerberus' involvement in her resurrection, she had not predicted accurately how much Shepard hates Cerberus.

And hate is surely the right word to use. Shepard _loathes_ Cerberus. She wants nothing to do with Miranda – whose suggestions she at best ignored – or Jacob, whose attempts to befriend her fall on willfully deaf ears. “I'm not one of you,” Shepard admits, seconds after meeting Kelly, and it's all Kelly can do not to point out how Cerberus truly does work for the benefit of humanity.

The only thing that makes her feel a bit better about the mission’s chance of success is Shepard's unfailing sense of duty. Shepard might not always agree with the Cerberus rationale, but she does as she’s told so long as they're protecting the colonists.  


That's the one thing that Kelly finds she is able to form any sort of bond with Shepard about. Shepard loves humanity; Shepard can't stand thinking about these people going missing and that – _that_ – is the only thing keeping her on their side.

She tells the Illusive Man as much in their first weekly meeting. He leans forever, blue eyes staring through her, and tells her to make sure Shepard has another reason.

She tries. She tries so hard to form a connection with Shepard, but for all the research, Shepard is cold. It hardly matters that her tastestend to match Shepard's owns, not when Shepard only talks to her when she wants to know about any new emails she's received.

As the week drags on, Kelly starts taking any sort of small talk as a small victory.

Somehow, she never dreamed Shepard would be this unfriendly.

 

4.

 

Things come to a head soon after they recruit Garrus. Kelly can't help but be unhappy about the turian's recruitment: he's too close to Shepard's old life, and Shepard is all too thankful to have some semblance of the old team back.

It's not until she talks to Garrus – all angry bluffing and jaded excuses – that she realizes that his recruitment is a better gift than she thought. Garrus is hurting, jagged and raw in all the ways that Shepard is, too.

She says nothing critical about Garrus – other than pointing out that the man is damaged goods – but she can't help but be relieved when Shepard stops making the battery her first stop every morning.

“I'm worried about Garrus,” Shepard says softly one morning, taking her by surprise before she can even squeak out that she has new messages. “Do you think you can talk to him?”  
  
“Of course,” Kelly says, her stomach fluttering. It's the first time Shepard's ever asked her to do something. “What for?”  
  
“He's having a hard time moving on from his old team.” Shepard leans toward her. “I don't expect Cerberus to be able to help him, but I figured talking to a shrink wouldn't hurt. And you're not...”

Shepard tilts her head, twirling a ringlet of her black hair between her fingers. “Not like the others. With aliens, I mean.”  
  
“Alright,” she says, nodding. It's hard, she suspects, for Shepard to understand why she went to Cerberus—but then, no doubt that is the purpose for her assignment, to be the snake in Shepard's garden.

She swallows her discomfort with the role, tells herself that it's necessary in order to lead Shepard to the better path. But being human first, of course, does not mean being anti-alien.

She goes down to the battery and isn't surprised when Garrus ignores her attempt to reach out to him.

Still, it earns Shepard's favor, and Kelly's heart beats a little faster when Shepard leans in and whispers, ‘Thank you for trying,’ in the halls.

  
5.

  
Shepard begins to open up to her, little by little. At first it is small things – asking about the crew, chess, dancing; small talk but enough that it makes her hopeful that her weekly meetings with the Illusive Man will not, for once, end in awkward lectures about using her wiles.

Shepard doesn't really open up to her until after her relationship with Ashley Williams crashes and burns. She gets the play by play from Miranda – a painful breakup, the kind that ends in a house fire, Shepard's life burning to pieces as Ash insists that she's nothing like her.

She never condemns Williams – that would be too blatant, Shepard too smart to not see through it – but she becomes an easy shoulder for Shepard.

They meet for lunch, and Kelly nods sympathetically, offers opinions that vindicate Shepard's opinion.

A couple missions later, Shepard tells Kelly she's decided it's over with Ash, for good.  
  
  
6.  
  
  
When she tells the Illusive Man, his smile is a mile wide.

  
7.

 

"You're the only one I can trust, Kelly," Shepard breathes, her voice soft one day as she squeezes her shoulder.

It’s the first time Shepard has shown any sign of intimacy with her. Her stomach somersaults, and she doesn’t remember what she says in reply, but she knows it's stuttered.

Kelly's stomach turns, disliking the thought of manipulating Shepard.

But she is Cerberus support, and she plays her role well.  
  


8.  
  


It's over dinner that things turn serious between them. It's only the first date, but she's wearing a tight cat-suit that the Illusive Man managed to make sure was in her room, fitted for her size and a flattering color. Her stomach turns and she tries to ignore it – and she's a good enough actor that Shepard certainly doesn't see it.

Shepard can't resist her look, all spandex and seduction. She dances for her, her hips moving lithe and sweet; Kelly is the bait, ever so ready for the hook.

She ignores the queasy feeling she gets as Shepard kisses her halfway through her dance, and they fall together, entwined in lips and heat. She touches the mess of wiry skin on her belly – still healing – as Shepard presses hot and sweet kisses to her breasts, then trails her hand lower, lower.

And then – _oh –_ Shepard's hand trails down her pubic mound, and she can't stop herself from falling into Shepard's arms.  
  
She grabs Shepard's hair a she grinds herself needfully against her fingers, the name Dolores heavy on her lips, and the she cannot stop herself from arching against her, her very being feverish with love for a woman whose measure she has already taken. Stolen.

Kelly comes screaming, Shepard's Cheshire eyes watching her as her mouth twists into a breathlesss "Oh."

9.

  
She tells the Illusive Man about their date – not an express play by play, but enough that it makes her uncomfortable.  


The unease settles into her stomach later, long after the call is over. She tries to suppress it by feeding Shepard's fish.

  
10.

  
The moment that Shepard smashes the sick tube the Collectors hid her in, eyes flashing anger and love both, Kelly knows she is in love.

She stumbles into her lover's arms, Shepard's voice a gentle melody of _it's all right, it's all right, it's all right, I've got you, you're safe now._

"Shepard—” she begins, because she has to tell her, has to, but Shepard the soldier smiles and presses a finger to her lips.

“Later,” she whispers softly. “When you're safe.”

 

11.

  
“I don't see why you're so worked up about this,” Jacob says, folding his arms as he glares at her.  
  
“You would just send her to jail? After what she did for us?”  
  
“We don't have much choice,” Miranda says, unusually quiet. Kelly glares at her, but Miranda avoids her eye.

  
12.

In the end, there's nothing they can do. Shepard leaves them, and she wants to tell her the truth, about what the Illusive Man asks her to do, but Shepard curls her arms around her and presses a kiss to her cheek in front of the whole crew and Kelly is breathless, breathless.  
  
She spends the next six months hiding out on the run, regret festering in her like a wound.  
  
She feeds Shepard's fish, but it doesn't make her feel better.  
  
Neither do the dreams where she melts away in the Collector's coffin.

  
14.  
  


By the time she sees Shepard again – all Cheshire grin and amusement, as if she wasn't _imprisoned_ but merely on a long vacation– she blurts the truth in the same breath as her greeting. “Back when I was your yeoman, I betrayed you. I didn't mean to, but I did.”  
  
She's blabbering, she knows she is, but she can't stop.

“What are you talking about, Kelly?”

“I would send reports to the Illusive Man about the emotional state of the crew. Including what I knew about you. I thought we were all on the same team, that I was helping you. Protecting you. But looking back...”  
  
“Don't worry about it. You were there for me.“ Shepard takes a step closer, her fingers caressing Kelly's sleeve. “And I kind of liked you keeping a close eye on me.”  
  
“And I kind of enjoyed looking,” Kelly giggles, feeling short of breath, relief flooding through her senses for the first time in months. 

“Good,” Shepard whispers, and then she kisses her, and Kelly presses back for all she's worth.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to B for the beta!


End file.
